News

Club hopes to make your green thumb more organic

Posted May 04, 2009 11:00 pm

By Christie Willhite

DuPage Organic Garden Club founder Jan Smith of Carol Stream, kneeling, and club member Carol Heydorn of Roselle prepare a stand of Northern Sea Oats for the club's upcoming plant sale. Courtesy of Bonita DeVale

More than four decades ago, Jan Smith had a revelation in her own yard.

Poised over an aphid-infested plant with a pesticide in her hand, she paused and considered what she was about to do. She had a young child and didn't really want chemicals around. And when she looked more closely at the plant, she noticed eggs from an aphid predator.

Nature was about to take care of itself - no pesticides or other chemicals necessary.

The moment prompted the Carol Stream woman to seek out natural gardening strategies, as well as fellow gardeners looking to be kind to the earth they were tending. She launched the DuPage Organic Garden Club in 1971. An environmental education activist, Smith has a park named in her honor in the Carol Stream Park District.

Today, the club she founded is feeling new interest as the idea of organic gardening becomes more mainstream. Members meet to share ideas and learn from experts, as well as to visit each other's yards and tour professionally maintained gardens.

During a plant sale Saturday, May 9, club members will offer hardy specimens from their own gardens and answer questions about their hobby.

Publicity Chairwoman Bonita DeVale discusses the group's activities.

Q. What is your mission?

A. We encourage fellow gardeners to learn about and employ organic methods, to think of their plants as part of a whole system within nature that starts in the soil and includes the water supply, people, wildlife and even insects.

An organic gardener strives to work in harmony with natural systems and to minimize and continually replenish any resources the garden consumes.

Q. How do you work toward accomplishing that goal?

A. We have monthly informative programs, a monthly newsletter that leads us to interesting resources, and we share information on methods and provide opportunities for networking and growth.

Additionally, we regularly visit gardens. These visits - to gardens of fellow club members and places such as Cantigny and Anderson Gardens in Rockford - allow us to learn by seeing and speaking directly with the gardeners who have created them.

Q. When and why did the garden club start? How has it grown?

A. Jan Smith, our founder, was committed to avoiding the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides on plants in her Carol Stream garden. She wanted to share the truth of what she had come to learn with others. That was 38 years ago. Today, we have a membership of 40.

Q. What kind of successes have you had?

A. We are seeing increased attendance at our informative monthly programs, which are open and free to all interested gardeners. We interpret this as a growing interest in organic gardening methods and consider our programs and our encouragement important elements in supporting fellow gardeners who wish to convert their methods but need help doing so.

Q. What challenges does the club currently face?

A. Convincing people to choose plants suited to their individual garden sites. We are trying to help people understand that plants adapted to our local climate and conditions are better able to grow without a lot of attention or input. On the other hand, when a gardener attempts to grow a plant that is not right for their site, they will probably have to boost its natural defenses to keep it healthy and productive.

A. We have an annual perennial plant sale, held each year the day before Mother's Day, when we offer well-established specimens hearty to the region and all dug from our own gardens.

Additionally, we offer crafts that have been made by members and we are available to answer questions about organic gardening and encourage other gardeners.

Our monthly programs, open to the community, are part of our developing outreach program.

Q. What do you wish the community at large knew about the club?

A. We are a group that focuses on learning from and having fun with people who like to garden. We are not stuffy. We swap garden experiences, advice, plants and seeds.

Amid the ongoing learning, there is a lot of laughter and kind deeds done for others, even though our focus is primarily on education. In the past, this has ranged from planting and maintaining public spaces to providing a bounty of hats and mittens to children who desperately needed them this past winter.

We believe in being kind to the earth and to others, but we are practical people and not sappy or sanctimonious about it.

Q. Who are your members? What qualities do you look for in new members?

A. Residents of many DuPage County communities, our members include young singles, married folks, grand- and even great-grandparents.

We look for enthusiasm and an interest in learning how to garden organically.

Q. What do you expect of your members?

A. We ask our members to participate as fully as they are honestly able in our meetings, committees and our annual fundraiser. We definitely focus on sharing the work and enjoy that. It is a very collaborative club.

Q. How can readers get involved?

A. Our membership fees are deliberately kept low, just $10 per year. Dues may be sent (with address, e-mail address, phone number and birthday) to: Donna Krusenoski, 534 Mohican, Carol Stream, IL 60188.

Or folks can come to any program or event and join. We like to make it easy to become a part of our group, and we consider ourselves very approachable.

Get started

The DuPage Organic Garden Club offers 10 tips for saving time and money in your garden:

1. Put the mulching attachment on your lawn mower. Allowing the clippings to fall will provide nutrients and help maintain moisture. It will not contribute to "thatch."

2. Keep your ears tuned to contractors or landscapers that may be grinding up a tree that has been removed. They often are happy to deliver the wood chips to you, rather than haul them away and pay a disposal fee. Allocate space in your garden so you can collect it when it becomes available.

3. Use wood chips or other mulch below your trees but do not pile it in unnatural looking heaps around the trunks, which smothers the roots.

4. Planting under trees is another method of keeping weeds down and holding moisture. Plenty of groundcovers are beautiful and hardy in this area.

5. By adding birdbaths and bird houses to your garden, you encourage their presence, which adds beauty for your eye and ears. And remember, they eat insects! It is important to keep the water clean for them. Frequent freshening also keeps mosquitoes at bay.

6. Consider a rain barrel, for rain water contains many nutrients for your plants. Make sure the barrel has a screened cover to keep mosquitoes out.

7. To keep the soil from running out of the bottom of your pots, use compressed leaves or an unbleached coffee filter.

8. Adding one or two inches of leaves in the fall as a mulch adds organic matter to your soil, protects it from erosion and smothers winter annual weeds. You can also compost leaves and then use them in the summer garden for mulch.

9. Do not clear all the plants from your garden in the fall. Consider leaving some for wildlife protection as well as visual interest. The garden in winter is a beautiful study in contrasts.

10. Speaking of snow, remember it is a wonderful insulator, so do not remove it from your garden. When it melts, it, too, provides nutrients to your soil.

DuPage Organic Garden Club founder Jan Smith of Carol Stream gathers leaves to line the bottom of pots. Courtesy of Bonita DeVale

Barbara Klein of Wheaton, a member of the DuPage Organic Garden Club, puts leaves in the bottoms of pots to help retain moisture. Courtesy of Bonita DeVale

Barbara Klein of Wheaton, a member of the DuPage Organic Garden Club, puts coffee filters in the bottoms of pots. Courtesy of Bonita DeVale

If you go What: DuPage Organic Garden Club's annual plant sale When: 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 9 Where: Mothers Day Celebration at Town Center, Gary Avenue at Lies Road, Carol Stream Details: Perennials are dug from members' gardens, well-established and hardy to the area; club members will answer questions about the plants and the club; garden-related gifts made by members will be for sale Cost: Free Info: <a href="mailto:OrganicGardenClub@att.net">OrganicGardenClub@att.net</a> or <a href="mailto:mondobonita@comcast.net">mondobonita@comcast.net</a> Regular meetings When: 7 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month, January through June, September and October; garden walks in July and August; annual potluck party in November Where: Usually at Winfield Bank, 27W111 Geneva Road; other locations announced 30 days in advance, as needed Fee: No fee to attend a program; $10 annual dues Vital statistics Funding sources: Members' annual dues and proceeds from annual Perennial Plant Sale Members: 40 Info: Jan Smith at (630) 653-3958 or <a href="mailto:OrganicGardenClub@att.net">OrganicGardenClub@att.net</a>; Bonita DeVale at (630) 462-6919 or <a href="mailto:mondobonita@comcst.net">mondobonita@comcst.net</a>

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